Athlon Sports assesses Trent Dilfer's hot seat temperature entering 2025

The 2025 college football season is right around the corner, and it has the potential to be a make-or-break year for several coaches on the hot seat. One of those coaches who is looking to answer some questions is UAB Blazers head man Trent Dilfer.

Ahead of the season, Athlon Sports broke down Dilfer’s hot seat temperature. In their preview, they explained where he stands at this point in the offseason.

“Although the former NFL QB brought name recognition,” Athlon wrote. “Dilfer’s only experience as a coach was a four-year stint at a private Tennessee high school. The Blazers are 7-17 under Dilfer and have fielded one of the nation’s worst defenses in that span.”

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Trent Dilfer is one of several former players who recently have been climbing the coaching ranks from high school into college. Perhaps the best known of those players turned coaches is Deion Sanders, the Colorado head coach.

Dilfer played for Fresno State during the early 1990s. He’d then go on to parlay that into a professional career in the NFL that lasted from 1994 through 2007. The season he’s best remembered for today was, of course, the 2000 season when he was the quarterback of the Baltimore Ravens. That year, with one of the league’s best ever defenses, the Ravens would win the Super Bowl.

Since leaving the NFL, Dilfer has remained heavily involved in the world of football. He worked as an analyst for ESPN from the end of his career through 2017. He’s also been heavily involved with Elite 11 quarterback camps in the past and became a high school coach at Lipscomb Academy in Nashville, Tennessee back in 2019. He’d put up a 44-10 high school record with two championships, only leaving to become the head coach at UAB.

UAB has had a difficult history as a college football program. Their first season wouldn’t be until 1991, and that was at the Division III level. By 1996, they’d be up to the Division I-A, or FBS level. However, they’d have just one bowl appearance, in 2004, before the program was shut down following the 2014 season. After two seasons away, the Blazers would be revived under Bill Clark who brought the program into Group of Five prominence, going to bowls from 2017 through 2022.

That 2022 season was under interim coach Bryant Vincent, who took over for Bill Clark amid back issues. That was also the program’s final season before making the jump to the AAC, which would fall on Trent Dilfer to oversee.

In his two seasons in Birmingham, Dilfer has led the Blazers to a 7-17 record overall and a 6-11 record in conference play. Last season, they’d finish tied for 11th in the AAC standings. Dilfer knows that after the Clark era, expectations are to make bowl games and be competitive in the conference, which hasn’t been the case yet.

UAB will open its 2025 season on August 28th against Alabama State. They’ll then begin AAC play on September 6th against Navy.